Greenhouse Soilless Agriculture
Turkeys future lies in agriculture...
Greenhouse agriculture facility; is a facility in which agricultural production is carried out economically without being dependant on climate throughout the year.
The aim of planning in greenhouse agricultural facilities is to establish the most suitable vegetable growth conditions in environments unsuitable for the growth and development of vegetables. It is seen that soilless agriculture is stepping forward among greenhouse production models in the last years.
What is soilless agriculture?
Soilless agriculture means growing vegetables in greenhouse systems in solid environments other than soil which is enriched by nutritional solutions.
Soilless Agriculture in the World and Turkey
90% of greenhouse agriculture in many world countries is realized via soilless agriculture methods. Canada, UK, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan, New Zealand are countries which prominently use this method. In Turkey, soilless agriculture is realized in only 1500 decares out of 542,000 decares of greenhouse production area. (Source; TUIK-Sera Bir)
Thus, it is seen that the potential of our country in this field is very high.
Why Soilless Agriculture?
- Turkey has a product marketing advantage as it is close to international markets due to its geographical location.
- It will create a perfect opportunity to cover the necessity of food in an ever increasing world population.
- It will create higher efficiency from area per unit and also production opportunities with high economic value.
- It will be able to ensure low energy costs with the usage of alternative energy sources such as geothermal energy and wind power. For example it increases geothermal warming profitability by 50-60%.
- It will prevent excess, unbalanced use of fertilizers and water.
- It will provide low workmanship costs due to usage of technology and automation.
- It will enable intense demand of product from Turkey as many world countries carrying out soilless agriculture cannot cover demand in the market outside of seasons due to unsuitable climate conditions.
Profit obtained from unit area in greenhouse soilless agriculture model is approximately 50 times more than the profit obtained from conventional agriculture models and is approximately 8 times more than the profit obtained from greenhouse agriculture.